American Airlines is rolling out anti-‘gate lice’ technology to more than 100 airports across the United States, which is designed to shame passengers who attempt to board the plane ahead of their assigned group by sounding an audible alert for everyone around them to hear.
The technology has been on trial at Albuquerque (ABQ), Washington National (DCA), and Tucson (TUS) airports for the past month, and following a successful test, American Airlines has decided to massively expand the solution.
American Airlines currently has nine different boarding groups (ten if you count pre-boarding), and passengers aren’t meant to board the plane until their specific boarding group has been called.
Following the pre-boarding phase, First Class passengers and active-duty U.S. military personnel are first to board, followed by elite frequent flyers and then Main Cabin Extra passengers.
Group Nine is reserved for Basic Economy passengers who are meant to wait until the very end of the boarding process before they try to get through the gate, but until now, there has surprisingly been no way to stop people from cutting in line.
“We’ve heard from our customers that the ability to board with their assigned group is important to them because it’s a benefit associated with their AAdvantage status or fare purchase,” explained Julie Rath, American’s Senior Vice President of Airport Operations, Reservations and Service Recovery as the passenger shaming technology was announced.
“The initial positive response from customers and team members has exceeded our expectations, so we are thrilled to leverage this technology to deliver for them ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.”
The solution removes any benefit of crowding the gate and lining up in the wrong boarding group by automatically rejecting a boarding pass that is scanned ahead of the assigned boarding group being called.
In addition, the scanner will emit an audible sound that will make everyone around the passenger aware that they tried to cut in line.
Although the ‘gate lice’ technology is the one making all the headlines, American Airlines points out that it is part of a bigger software update that is designed to make the boarding experience better and, hopefully, quicker.
The Fort Worth-based airline has developed an in-house application that will give gate agents more information about the boarding process. For example, for the first time, gate agents will have a single-screen view of how many passengers are in each boarding group, allowing them to better pace the boarding process.
Gate agents will also be able to see the anticipated arrival time for incoming flight connections, which should give them more insight into potential misconnects.
Some of the airports where the technology will be rolled out in time for the holidays include Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The technology will then be expanded to other airpots over the coming months.
